Meta

Subscribe

South African Elections

Posted by mykela1 on April 21, 2009

This week, South Africa is having their fourth presidential election since the abolishment of Apartheid. The African National Congress, the party which is home to Nelson Mandela and helped to end apartheid in the 90’s, is expected to win the vote, as it has done for every election in the past. In the South African system, the people vote for their favored party and then the president of that party becomes the president of the country. The problem that I see in this is Jacob Zuma, the current ANC president and the expected future president of South Africa. Two weeks ago, the over 700 counts of corruption and fraud held against him were dropped as were the charges of rape only a few months ago. Those opposing Zuma have called foul play but have gone unheard on the whole. The only note-worthy opposition groups are the Democratic Alliance, a anti-Zuma party which has come under scrutiny as only looking out for white South Africans, and the newly formed Congress of the People, an off-shoot of the ANC which broke off after the party ousted Mbeki as the president of South Africa a few months ago. Neither are expected to win more than 20% of the votes but are attempting to raise awareness in the apparent problems within the ANC. My largest issue with this situation is that there has not been as much uproar within South Africa and within the international community as it warrents, so I thought I would do my part and let a few more people know who may not have had the chance to read about it on their own.

One Response to “South African Elections”

rfranklsaid

This is the havic that aperthied has wrought. The problem is two fold. The population can not think except in terms of race, and the country is in a situation not unlike the Republicans after Lincoln in America; a great leader, almost martyr, triumphs over obvious wrongs, but against all odds, and then his party goes on to live off of that legacy. But the ANC, like the Republicans after 1865, have become corrupt and parasitic. They do not really have to get anything good done because they have their laurels to rest on. I have not read that much about South Africa, but do you think that is a sort of apt comparison? The differance though I suppose is that even though the Republicans themselves became corrupt and did not do much except stay out of the way, that was fine because the country could handle itself and was indeed booming. But in South Africa, there are horribe slums, a lack of clean water in some areas, and some really serious economic problems that need a competent party to handle. Informative post though, well done.